Government’s plan is cracked! Limerick homeowners insist pyrite problem is bigger than foundations
SISTERS-IN-LAW Anne Ryan and Ann Ryan are on the campaign trail. They want the government to treat them the same as homeowners in Dublin whose houses and apartments are falling apart because of pyrite.
And they believe, along with householders whose homes are decimated due to mica, that the government needs to stump up 100% of the replacement costs.
“We shouldn’t have to pay again,” said Anne Ryan who is chairperson of the Limerick Pyrite Action Group. “Once is enough to pay for them”
And to make their voices heard, Anne and Ann made their own banner and earlier this month joined the thousands of protesters in Dublin demanding 100% compensation for their affected homes. .
Anne, who lives just a garden length away from her brother Kieran and sister-in-law Ann outside Askeaton, believes that the pyrite compensation scheme which was extended to Limerick last year is inadequate. It covers only foundations, she pointed out.
But her problem is not the foundation of the extension she built in 1991: it is the blocks. When the cracks appeared in her extension, water getting into the foundations was declared to be the problem by an engineer and €25,000 was spent on underpinning and replastering. “Within a year the cracks appeared again,” she said. She has since had blocks taken out and tested and found to contain pyrite.
Her sister-in-law, Ann equally has no problem with the foundations of the dormer bungalow they built in 1990 because the blocks came from a different source.
But the blocks for the house have been tested and contain pyrite and the house is ridden with cracks. The kitchen in particular is affected, and the West gable. “It is scary,” she said. “You don’t know how dangerous it is. You don’t know if the wall is going to hold up.”
“Our house will have to be demolished,” she added. But they, and other affected householders, need help, not just with the costs of demolishing, clearing and rebuilding but also the costs of storage, renting. “They got 100% in Dublin. Why can’t we get the same?”
Anne Ryan, as chair of the action group, is keen to hear from other affected householders in Limerick and also wants to get the council on board to draw up a plan for the problem.
She can be contacted on 086-3369420.